WINNERS OF DENAEDIN AND EMANELLE ARE ANNOUNCED + Tutorial Fingerless Gloves Denaedin

I am so happy to announce the winners of the Denaedin and Emanelle Luxurious Silk Beaded Fingerless Gloves:

CONGRATULATIONS RENNA WINNER OF DENAEDIN

CONGRATULATIONS BRANDY WINNER OF EMANELLE

I would like to thank every single person who was so kind to visit my blog and I would like to thank every single person who entered into the competition and/or left me a comment... you all have been so very kind!

I also promised the patterns for free. In this post I give you a picture tutorial on Denaedin. Please click on Denaedin to download the pattern:

Denaedin Glove

The picture tutorial on Emanelle will be posted shortly. Please click on Emanelle to download the pattern:

Emanelle Glove

In this entry you will find:

1. Some very quick Cable Basics
2. Tutorial on how to knit Denaedin
3. Tweak the pattern!

Some very quick Cable Basics

This blog is dedicated to the novice knitter and all knitters who are interested in learning new stuff. I am a novice knitter myself and by no means an authority on knitting whatsoever. I am just an enthusiastic little novice knitter who would like to share her adventures.

Cabling is merely twisting of stitches. See the centre 6 stockinettestitches of this photo? They are kind of situated in between "a field" of purl stitches. Now those 6 centre stockinette stitches are your window of cable opportunity:

So now that you know that cabling involves "twisting" of stitches, I am going to show you how the "twisting" is done. Also note that this twisiting need not to be done every single row. You twist on the right side of your work, then cruise for a few rows untill it is time to twist again. In order to twist the stitches you will need to throw a cable needle in the mix. Cable needles come in different sizes and variations and look like this:

It is all up to you whether you like to work with above mentioned cable needles. I prefer to work with the shortest circulair needle I can get:

Better yet, I prefer to work with no cable needle at all... but that I will save for another post, because I am afraid I will confuse the novice knitter!

Let us continue. If the pattern says: "slip 3 stitches onto cable needle and leave at front, then k3 and then k3 from cable needle" you simply have to do the following: Slip 3 stitches onto cable needle:

And leave at front:

Now knit the next 3 stitches (just ignore those stitches who are so helplessly hanging from your cable needle):

After you have knit those 3 stitches, your work should look like this:

The next step feels "weird" at first because now you are actually going to make that twist we were talking about earlier.

Those 3 helplessly hanging stitches are now going to be knit from your cable needle:

By doing so, you have made your first twist.

Now put that cable needle away for a little bit untill it is time to use it again!

Finish the row and gaze at your first twist!

Next you cruise several rows and worry about nothing!

Until it is time to twist again and you repeat the steps with cable needle. There, that is all there is to it!

For more cable tutorials go to: Knittinghelp.com and watch Amy Finlay's excellent tutorial video on cables! You will find it in the "Advanced Technique" tab and then go to "decorative stitches". I learned how to do cables from Amy's video.

Tutorial on how to knit Denaedin

When I was a very very novice knitter I wanted to knit a fingerless glove. I scouted the internet of free patterns. The ones I found were all to intricate for me... And I was so afraid to work with double pointed needles! I needed a pattern that was knitted flat! Because the pattern that I came accross where too intricate for me, I decided to make one myself. I busted out my excell software, and started to calculate, knit, rip out, calculate again, knit again, rip again...

For several nights I was occupied with it until I was completely satisfied.

I have knit this pattern with several yarns: debblie bliss pure silk, Debbie Bliss Alpaca silk DK, artyarns beaded silk and Misti Alpaca DK.

I found out that basically any DK weigth yarn will do. Even sports weight is fine for this pattern allthough it will be a tiny bit bigger. In my first pattern I made in total 7 cables. When I started working with Artyarns beaded silk, I was so afraid I would run out of yarn that I only made 6 cables... I discovered that I would have been just fine doing 7 cables because I had some leftover beaded silk yarn... oh well...

For the pattern please go to the pdf file.

Next is a step by step picture tutorial to give you an insight and to show you that as a newbie knitter, you need not to be intimidated!

Pick up your needles and knit Denaedin! It's FUN! Step 1: Cast on stitches and make ribbing for 6 rows:

Step 2: The Cable Fun Commences! See beginning of this post on how to cable.

All in all you make about 6 or 7 cables. It is all up to you how long you want your glove to be. Again, when I worked with the Artyarn's beaded silk I made 6 cables. In this photo I made 7 cables in total:

Step 3: Almost there! Now make a 4 row ribbing and bind off in ribbing pattern. From the photo you can see that this glove is knitted from the bottom up. This means that you started on the bottom and worked all the way up to the top.

Step 4: Seam that glove!

Start to seam at the top of the glove. The seaming technique I used is called the mattress stitch. Remember when you ribbed for 4 rows? That is your top. So start there. If you don't know how to seam, go to knittinghelp.com and watch Amy Finlay's excellent video tutorial on the mattress stitch. Scroll down her page untill you hit the "finishing" section and click on the mattress stitch!

Stop after about 1 3/4 inches or 2 inches. It is all up to you when you stop. Then start seaming at the bottom of the glove:

Keep on seaming untill you have a thumb opening of about 1 1/4 inches, but it is really up to you how big you want that thumb opening to be.

Now weave in the ends and you are done!

There! That is all there is to it! Now that wasn't that hard, was it?

TWEAK THE PATTERN!

I encourage you to tweak the pattern! A pattern is just a guideline... you can do anything you want with it. For instance if you want the glove to be longer, make more cables! If you think the ribbing is too short, make it longer! If you think it is too long, make it shorter! It is all up to you how you want it...

This post has become longer than I intended it to be. Therefore I will post the step by step picture tutorial on Emanelle later this week.

Woooohooooo! I am soooo happy to share this with you all!!! Happy knitting..!